Co-Investigator: Dr. Barbara Slusher

Director, JHU NIMH Therapeutic Core
Director, Brain Science Institute NeuroTranslational Drug Discovery Program
Associate Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University

Barbara Slusher is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry and the Director of the Brain Science Institute (BSI) NeuroTranslational Drug Discovery Program. Before joining Hopkins in September 2009, Dr. Slusher had a highly accomplished drug discovery career in the pharmaceutical industry holding positions of increasing responsibility at both large and small companies including ICI Pharmaceuticals, Zeneca (now Astra-Zeneca), Guilford Pharmaceuticals, MGI Pharma, and the Eisai Research Institute, including 10 years at the level of Senior Vice President of Research and Translational Development. She has extensive experience in drug discovery through Phase I/IIa clinical development and has participated in multiple FDA meetings and both IND and NDA regulatory filings. She has also been involved in the successful development, launch and postmarketing support of four currently marketed medicines. Dr. Slusher received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a Master's degree in Management from the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business.

At Johns Hopkins Dr. Slusher currently leads a 20-member veteran drug discovery team of medicinal chemists, assay developers, pharmacologists, toxicologists, and pharmacokinetic/drug metabolism experts, who are engaged in identifying novel drug targets arising from JHU faculty’s research and translating them into new drug therapies for neurological disorders. Dr. Slusher is a member of the JHU NIMH Center for Novel Therapeutics of HIV-associated Cognitive Disorders, and serves as the Director for the Therapeutics Development Core. It is through this center that novel therapies that evolve from JHU studies will be evaluated for neuroprotective activity in cell culture and animal models of neurodegeneration for HIV-associated cognitive disorders and dementia. Neuroprotective compounds which possess in vivo efficacy and have proven pharmacokinetic/toxicologic properties may ultimately be evaluated as adjunctive therapy for HIV patients with cognitive disorders.

Dr. Slusher has published over 100 scientific articles and is the inventor on 52 issued patents. She has been an invited speaker at over 40 national and international scientific meetings, has served on the Board or as a scientific consultant of multiple biotechnology companies. She is leading the first National Consortium for Academic Drug Discovery scientists in an effort to coordinate and enhance university-led drug discovery efforts. Most recently she has co-founded an new biotechnology company called Cerecor, to commercialize JHU drug discovery inventions. Barbara Slusher can be reached via email at bslusher@jhmi.edu.

Link to Curriculum Vitae

Learn more about the Therapeutic Development Core.